Spermsicles!

So after a nice (and much needed) hiatus, I have returned from vacation. It was a perfect time to get away with DH, relax, and forget all about baby making.

Well, before vacation, we found out that hubby had another testicular infection (most likely prostatitis). So for good measure, we went ahead and froze a sperm sample (just in case). I'm sure glad we did because on our way to vacation we got a call from the ferility office and were informed that his counts had dropped DRASTICALLY...from about 55 million to 2.1 million and 0% type A and only 18% type B. Our IVF nurse assured me that even if we have to use the frozen sample, it shouldn't be a problem at all. After all, isn't that why many couples do IVF to begin with ...male factor? So $700 later, we have our very own spermsicle on ice. Hopefully we won't have to use it, but it's nice to have piece of mind. I'm sure it will help hubby "perform" the day of my retrieval if you know what I mean.

So back to vacation. The beach was wonderful. Although, after 7 days in a small beach house with two other couples, my hubby and I got a little cabin fever. We did plenty of exploring and a deep sea fishing trip to combat our boredom. I had such an amazing time with him. Just getting away from it all was so helpful. Sometimes I really wonder how I managed to marry such an amazing man. The trip was so awesome in getting us to really focus on each other and not the mundane tasks of daily life. Anyways, there was plenty of time to relax...and also lots of debauchery...I'll post pics from the trip later once I download them off my camera.

So now we are back in Nashville. I had my suppression check this morning. Everything was ALL CLEAR!!!! Yay! My E2 was 53 and there were no cysts. So tomorrow we drop the Lupron down to 5 units (from 10 units) and on Saturday we begin the Follistim. I actually can't believe this is all happening. I am really keeping my fingers crossed and trying not to get ahead of myself...but with DH's travel for work, it is kind of hard to not. Today we had to estimate when our first U/S will be if we do get pregnant. I really don't want to go to that alone. It's scary, because in the same breath...if I don't get preggo, then we modified his whole schedule for nothing. Hopefully that's not the case.

To end on a positive note, our friends that are MUCH older than we are (she is 38) just got their first BFP this past week from IVF at the same clinic. Given her age and the fact that she smoked like a chimney leading up to her retrieval, I like to think that I have a great chance of getting my BFP!

I guess we are officially off!

First comes love, then comes marriage, then come the baby...oh wait, no...no it doesn't...

Ok, I am on my new serious kick to blog daily or close to it. I am so young, but really have experienced so much during this TTC journey. If I can touch just one person with my blog, then the plan God has for me is serving its purpose (as painful and financially draining as this “journey” is). So let’s do the catch up.

Our last IUI failed. We had SOO much hope that it had worked…but alas…it didn’t. I was rather devastated this time around because we had 3 follies and awesome counts (well awesome by male factor standards). I did have an inkling that it didn’t take though.

After this failed round, DH went in to have his counts and everything looked at. My RE called and suggested that given his counts and my PCOS, we skip the 3rd try with injects and move on to IVF. In all honesty, I don’t know why people that have multiple factors (PCOS and male factor) aren’t just encourage to save their money and start with IVF. It’s a business I guess…and they milked us for 3K each inject/IUI cycle….but I have not known one cyster with male factor to get pregnant this way.

So Randy and I went to our IVF class (that is required by our fertility center). $216 later, I am scared out of my mind. I don’t think I realized quite how many needles I’d be sticking in myself or that the progesterone in oil needle is an 22g and it goes in your butt.

Our RE has recommended doing the long IVF protocol (Lupron and the works) and ICSI. They went ahead and ordered all of our meds. We actually faired pretty well. The clinic told us to anticipate close to a $3000 medication bill. It only came out to be $1587. It arrived at my husbands’ job today. I don’t think I realized going into this quite how expensive this whole thing is. Here’s the breakdown for our IVF procedure:

• Nashville Fertility Center 3000.00
• Reproductive Specialty Lab 3500.00
• NFC Surgery Center 2300.00
• Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) 1450.00
• Lupron 2 week kit 99.00
• Follistim 300 (7 cartridges) 1240.00
• Tetracycline 10.00
• Medrol dose pack 15.00
• Ovidrel Hcg shots (2) 179.98
• Progesterone in Olive Oil (2) 15.00
• Package of 22g needles 12.00
• Package of 18g needles 12.00
• Syringes 5.00
o GRAND TOTAL: $11,837

Damn it makes me cringe to type that out….but I guess everyone going into it needs to know. DH and I have ZERO insurance coverage for the procedure or meds. The only things that were covered were the antibiotics, steroids, and progesterone in oil.

Because I had a massive allergic reaction to progesterone suppositories (I had a Steven’s Johnsons reaction) that put me in the hospital, they want me to test taking the progesterone in oil shot one time tomorrow night to ensure that I don’t have an anaphylactic reaction to it. Since DH and I took the past two cycles off to prepare for IVF, we agreed that testing it before dumping thousands of dollars into the cycle would be a really good idea. The idea of plunging an entire 22g needle into my ass makes me cringe. The more I watch the “how to video” the more nervous I get. DH is going to give it to me just because of the location (and because I am a total chicken).

Well here’s goes nothing! I’ll keep you posted; )